Chapter 1

Chapter 1

That sesame-sized person hugged my leg, tilted her face up, and called out to me again.

“Little Aunt.”

I looked down, narrowing my eyes as I sized her up.

This child looked to be about three or four years old. Her features hadn’t fully developed yet, but those eyes-

Those eyes were the spitting image of Gu Ruan’s.

I grabbed her by the back of her collar, lifting her up and dangling her in mid-air. “Whose brat is this? If nobody wants her, I’m throwing her away.”

The child didn’t cry or make a fuss. Even while dangling in the air, she reached out toward me. “Want Little Aunt.”

A maid rushed out from the doorway, her face pale as a sheet. She reached out to take the child. “Little Miss, please let go-”

But the child clung to my arm, refusing to let go for dear life.

The maid was so anxious she was breaking out in a sweat. Suddenly, as if realizing something, her lips began to tremble. “Li-Little Miss, say that again.”

“What did you call this lady?”

I found her staring at me bizarrely. “What are you glaring at me for?”

The child called out again in a crisp, clear voice, “Want Little Aunt.”

The maid’s tears fell on the spot. She fell to her knees with a thud. “The heavens have eyes! The heavens have eyes!”

She grabbed my sleeve and started dragging me toward the house, shouting at the top of her lungs as she ran, “Madam! Madam! The Little Miss can speak! The Little Miss can speak!”

I stumbled along as she pulled me, a child still hanging off my body, my mind filled with confusion.

What did she mean, she could speak?

Had this child never spoken before?

Before long, a crowd of people came swarming out of the main hall.

Leading them was a woman dressed in elegant, expensive silks. Her eyes were rimmed with red and her hands were shaking as she crouched down to take the child’s hand. “Ah Qiao, call for Grandmother.”

Ah Qiao didn’t say a word. She just turned her head and hugged my leg.

The smile on the woman’s face froze for a moment, and the light in her eyes dimmed.

She then stood up and looked me up and down, as if trying to identify who I was.

“You are…”

“My name is Gu Xiaoxiao.”

The woman froze, her pupils trembling slightly. “The daughter of General Gu?”

She murmured, “The resemblance… why is it so faint? I heard General Gu achieved great merit on the battlefield and was titled the General Who Guards the North.”

My father was originally a butcher. When my mother was pregnant with me, he was conscripted as a common soldier.

Who would have thought that after more than a decade, he would return as some kind of general? They said he earned it by taking the head of an enemy commander and leading his army to victory in over a dozen battles, often winning against overwhelming odds.

But what was she implying by saying the resemblance was faint?

I smiled, my tone neither hot nor cold. “Madam thinks I don’t look much like my father? That’s normal. I’m better looking than he is.”

The woman didn’t respond but gestured to someone behind her.

A maid stepped forward carrying a scroll and slowly unfurled it.

On the painting was a little girl. She held a roasted chicken leg in her left hand and was strangling a goose by the neck with her right. She was baring her teeth with a fierce expression, looking like someone you definitely shouldn’t mess with.

My eyelid twitched.

“This was painted by Ah Ruan. She said it was her younger sister back in the countryside.”

“She painted these for many years. There are dozens of them.”

I stared at the painting, my back teeth grinding together.

Ah Ruan’s artistic skills were truly crude. She had painted me so ugly-fat-headed, big-eared, and looking utterly villainous, clutching a chicken leg and a goose.

She must have spent every night cursing me while looking at this painting.

I only stole one chicken leg from her when I was little. Has she really held a grudge for all these years?

As I was grumbling internally, Ah Qiao suddenly pointed at the painting and said happily, “Little Aunt.”

The entire area fell silent.

The Marquess walked in from the entrance, his gaze heavy as he looked at me. It took a long while before he spoke. “Ah Qiao hasn’t seen you since the day she was born. Only my wife has ever mentioned you, yet she recognized you after just one look at that painting.”

“Your sister was always thinking of you.”

A strange sting pricked my heart, but I quickly suppressed it.

I came here to settle scores with Gu Ruan, not to listen to this sentimentality.

I turned to the woman and asked bluntly, “Madam, where is Gu Ruan-I mean, where is my sister?”